Paharpur:

The most spectacular Buddhist monument discovered in regular excavation in Bangladesh is the gigantic temple and monastery at Paharpur in Rajshahi district. It has been identified from an inscription as the famous Somapuri Mahavihara of the great Pala emperor, Dharmapala (770-810 A.D.). It is one of the biggest single Vihara in Asia. This immense quadrangular monastery (922' x 919') with 177 living cells for monks, arranged in regular rows of its four arms, its elaborate gateway complex on north, numerous votive stupas, minor chapels and a multitude of other ancillary buildings within its vast perimeter is dominated by a lofty pyramidal temple in the centre of the enclosure. The ground plan of this colossal temple resembles a square cross with angles of projections between the arms. It gradually rises in several terraced pile round a deep central shaft with an ambulatory passage around the monument in each of the two upper terraces. The basement wall of this imposing edifice is embellished, curiously, with 63 Brahmanical stone sculptures, above which runs, in two lower terraces, rows of terracotta plaques depicting the folk-art of the period.

Architecturally and historically Paharpur vihara is a treasured heritage of the world which, in ancient Asia, set for the first time a striking new style of temple building on a grand scale, followed later in the Far East especially noticable at the Pagan temples in Burma and the Chandi loro Jongrang and Chandi Sewu temples in central Java.

It is clear from the available epigraphic records that the cultural and religious life of the great Somapuri Mahavihara were closely linked with the Nalanda Mahavihara at Magadha (Bihar). An interesting inscription of the eleventh-twelfth century, salvaged in excavation for instance,refers to one SriVipulasri Mitra,a monk of Nalanda who carried out some renovation and repair works at the Somapuri Vihara. The record further describes the Vihara as "a singularfeast to the eyes of the world". Tibetan sources testify that the illustrious Buddhist savant Dipamkara Srijnana Atisa of Vikrampur near Dhaka lived several years in the Somapuri Vihara and that his spiritual preceptor, Ratnakar Santi, was the Sthavira of this monastery. It was a very important centre of pilgrimage and learning for the Tibetan Buddhists throughout its halcyon days.